Chinese (Civ6)/In-depth strategy guide by ThinkingNut
The following guide is being constantly updated by ThinkingNut. ThinkingNut has been playing almost exclusively as China in Civ 6 since the release of the game in late 2016. He plays and wins on Deity difficulty in Single Player and Multiplayer. The guide has been updated for Rise and Fall and Gathering Storm . It has been written with the objective of helping you win at Deity difficulty level. Introduction China is a versatile, complex and solid civilisation that can, with the right setup and Wonders, effectively go for any of the Victory types and gain an advantage no matter the map conditions. Qin's First Emperor leader ability boasts the most productive Builders in the game (with their charge count potentially going up as high as 8 per Builder) and the unique ability to rush Ancient and Classical Wonders with Builder charges. Dynastic Cycle provides an excellent snowballing ability in terms of researching Technologies and Civics for the entire game. Crouching Tigers provide cheap and powerful defence in the Medieval and Renaissance Era, making China the strongest defensive civilisation in the mid game as long as her enemies are on technological parity or behind. The Great Wall tile improvement functions as a standard Fort in terms of Combat Strength and is unlocked three Eras earlier with Masonry. It provides Chinese units with a very effective defensive option for the entire game. Its potential Gold and, later on, Culture and Tourism yield is an excellent source of income. Learning how to play optimally as China will take patience and experimentation as she has a relatively steep learning curve. The key is understanding which Ancient and Classical Wonders are appropriate under which geopolitical circumstances. Once you have a solid grasp on this aspect of her kit, the other bonuses are relatively straightforward and simple to use. If you take the time to learn how to play China competently, you will have a competitively viable civilisation to take into Deity and Multiplayer games. Good luck! Beginner's Mini-Guide To China If you are fairly experienced at playing Civilization 6 but picking up China for the first time, here are my seven beginner's tips to make your learning curve easier. The idea is to maximise the productivity of your Builders, get as much value as possible from Eurekas and Inspirations, and protect your empire using Crouching Tigers and the Great Wall tile improvement. Note that these are general tips that work fairly well in all situations. When you get more experienced, learning to adapt these suggestions to your immediate environment will be key so that you leverage the maximum advantage as a China player. # Prioritise rushing the Pyramids with Builder charges. Don't worry about the other Ancient to Classical Wonders until you are more experienced with playing as China. # Get Ancestral Hall ( ) for a free four to seven charge Builder in every newly founded city. # Get Liang's ( ) Guildmaster starting title as your first Governor title every game for the additional Builder charge. # If you go into a Golden Age in the early to mid game, grab Monumentality as your Dedication to lower the Gold / Faith cost of your Builders and increase their mobility. # Try to acquire as many Eurekas and Inspirations as possible to get the maximum value out of Dynastic Cycle. # Get at least one Crouching Tiger when you unlock them to upgrade the Ranged Combat Strength of your city walls. # Build Great Wall tile improvements if you need fast access to defensive terrain, but don't over-rely on them and neglect to build walled-up Encampments. For more advanced, in-depth notes and strategies, please see below: The First Emperor Overview Of Ability China's Builders get an extra charge, giving them a total of 4 instead of 3 charges. Combine this later on with the Pyramids, Serfdom and Public Works, and you can potentially have Builders with 7 charges (or 8 in Rise and Fall ''with governor Liang's Guildmaster title) - the highest number of charges per Builder in the game! They can also spend charges to rush the construction of Ancient and Classical Wonders. Breakdown Of Ancient And Classical Wonders # '''How many Ancient to Classical Wonders should I attempt to rush in a standard game?' The answer is it will depend on what victory type you are going for. The number will therefore vary from game to game. That said, a general tip is to be careful to strike a balance between early empire expansion and building Wonders. Don't get so focused on the Wonders that you end up with half the number of cities that everyone else has by the mid-game! # '''Which Ancient to Classical Wonders should I go for? '''A. Always rush the Pyramids whenever possible. After that, go for the other Reliably good to Situational (more on this below) Wonders as appropriate. B. As all the Wonders in the game have specific map-based requirements, it would be in your best interests as a China player to learn the said requirements as well as you can. This then allows you to... C. Read the map quickly and accurately so that you can make strategic decisions about which Wonders to build based on what types of tiles and City-States are nearby. Aside from what has already been written in the "Victory Types" section, the general guideline is: For Amenities, get Temple of Artemis and Colosseum. For water-heavy maps, get Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, Colossus and Great Lighthouse. For desert-heavy areas, get Petra. Notes: Core = Pyramids. Grab it every game if possible. This is your top priority, consistently game-changing wonder that complements China's kit excellently. Reliably good = Get these Wonders if you can manage to juggle your Production between these and general empire expansion. They will heavily reward you if you do. Situational = Situationally great. Don't bother otherwise. Avoid = Just don't bother. 1 Note that the Pyramids add one extra charge for all existing Builders as well. Therefore, if you have a choice when your Pyramids are near completion, shuffle your Builders so that you have as many of them left as possible. 2 Available only if you bought the Persia and Macedon Civilization & Scenario Pack. 3 If you want to collect Stonehenge, if you are playing at the Emperor difficulty level or above in single-player, try to shuffle your maps to get a good suitable position - near some Stone, close to a Natural Wonder and some city-states. The boost to Astrology from a Natural Wonder allows you to research the other techs you need to work tiles and produce military, and city-states alleviate the need for regular . If you do sacrifice early and expansion, you will lose the later Wonders. 4 Available only if you bought the Nubia Civilization & Scenario Pack. Notes On Optimally Rush-Building A Wonder # Builders can only expend one charge a turn on rushing Ancient to Classical Wonders. # You can "queue" a succession of 1-charge Builders to rush multiple times per turn. # The source of your Builders is irrelevant, so you can have your entire empire indirectly contribute to the construction of a single Wonder. # For maximum synergy, grab Autocracy as your Tier 1 government, Monument to the Gods as your Pantheon, and Corvee as your economic policy for a total of +40% to Ancient and Classical Wonders. This boosts the value of each Builder charge from 15% to 21%, allowing you to finish any Wonder purely through Builder charges within 5 turns. This is very powerful, especially in new cities with little . # Any extra from completing a Wonder overflows into the next build order of a city so nothing is wasted. Unlocking Canals At Masonry With the Gathering Storm Expansion Pack, The First Emperor leader ability has now the extra bonus of unlocking Canals after researching the Masonry technology. This is a very situational and niche ability. You have to play on maps where land masses are narrow or snaky enough to isolate bodies of waters from each other for canals to be relevant. The only arguments for building early Canals are for more efficient Trade Routes and Canals being a source of district adjacency bonuses. Otherwise, your early game Production would be better spent elsewhere. Dynastic Cycle 10% extra Eurekas and Inspirations are great all game, especially in the late game when both technologies and civics are far more expensive. The enhanced boosts allow for China to have great snowballing potential all game. But it would be counterproductive to wait too long for Eurekas and Inspirations because of the 10% extra. For the most essential tech or civic, plow through without delay. This bonus proves its own worth if you are considering a Domination Victory strategy. Every time you conquer a city, you gain an Eureka or Inspiration if the enemy civilisation is ahead of you in Technology or Civics. With Dynastic Cycle, this becomes even more valuable. Last but not least, stealing technology boosts with spies in the mid to late game is even more valuable as China because the Eurekas get an extra 10% of the technology cost. This strategy gets better the higher you go in difficulty (in single player) because on Immortal and Deity, the AI will almost always be ahead of you in technology until possibly the mid-to-late game. Great Wall Defensive Bonus The Great Wall tile improvement operates as a Fort in terms of granting Combat Strength: +4 Defense Strength and an instant 2 turns of fortification - a total of +10 Combat Strength. Its superior value comes from the fact that it is unlocked three eras earlier at Masonry. It is much more accessible since it is constructed with Builder charges. This gives early game units a much bigger boost in defensive Combat Strength relative to their intrinsically lower Combat Strength. Eg. Archers get a 66% boost in defensive melee Combat Strength because their intrinsic melee Combat Strength is 15. It is an excellent source of early defence against barbarians and any aggressive neighbour. In Gathering Storm, the Garrison promotion applies to Great Wall tile improvements, so it makes sense for primarily defending Ranged Units to grab this as their first promotion. This boosts the already formidable defensive power of the Crouching Tigers. The only requirement it has is that the Great Wall needs to be built along the borders of your empire. One important note is that although the Great Wall is good for providing defensive terrain, it is a complement to walled-up Encampments and not a substitute. Additional statistics The Great Wall grants an intrinsic +2 by itself, with another +2 when adjacent to another tile of Great Wall. Once the Castles technology has been researched, an additional +2 is granted per adjacent Great Wall tile. This brings the economic benefits of a Great Wall title up to an impressive +6 and +4 per strip when adjacent to two other Great wall tiles. When Flight has been researched, is also accumulated. Although this is an excellent source of and in the early game, it is advisable only to build Great Wall segments along borders where you anticipate an invasion. Building too many of them will sacrifice too many tiles which could have been used for other tile improvements. A combination that is especially powerful is building Great Wall segments on desert tiles that have been boosted by Petra, tiles which otherwise cannot be improved. This boosts their value to +2 , +1 , +8 and +4 per tile. I would caution against building Great Wall segments on desert hill tiles as the from mines will be a better long-term choice. If you are lacking 4 Era Score towards a Golden Age or Normal Age, laying one Great Wall tile down grants +4 Era Score. Final note: Great Wall tiles can be pillaged but never removed by disasters. Crouching Tiger The Crouching Tiger is a unique ranged unit that costs 160 , 20 less than the 180 Crossbowman and has +50 Ranged Combat Strength, relative to the Crossbowman's +40 Ranged Combat Strength. Like the Crossbowman, it does not cost resources to train. However, it has one less Range when compared to the Crossbowman. The reduction in Range means Crouching Tigers will be exposed to enemy melee units unless placed in defensive structures, which significantly inhibits their use. Crouching Tigers are therefore best employed in defensive wars when placed in walled-up Encampments or City Centers. If neither is available or convenient, ad hoc Great Wall placement can also help the survivability of Crouching Tigers. If you're planning to mass-produce Crouching Tigers, it is more efficient to adopt the Feudal Contract military policy card as the Crouching Tigers are classified as Medieval ranged units. The +50% that is granted with this policy card has synergy with the Crouching Tiger's already lowered base costs. Final note: When you build your first Crouching Tiger, all your city defences and encampments (providing that you've built Ancient Walls) will gain its +50 Ranged Combat Strength. This, in conjunction with the Great Wall tile improvement and the Bastions policy card, gives China the potential to be the strongest defensive civilization in the game during the Medieval Era. It is a good idea, therefore, to build at least one Crouching Tiger as soon as you unlock it, even if you are at peace, so that you upgrade your cities' and encampments' ranged attacks. When defending, it is advisable to grab Garrison as your first promotion for even more effective defence. Policy Cards This section will recommend what policy cards work best in synergy with China's kit. As such, the recommended play style is intended to revolve around empowering Builders and Spies, constructing Wonders and bolstering military defence. Government In the early game, I highly recommend switching to Autocracy as your Tier 1 government. The main reason is that it provides +10% Production towards Wonders. As mentioned above, this is purely to help us build more early game Wonders. All other governments are situational. Government Plaza Buildings In the early game, I highly recommend Ancestral Hall because it helps us expand horizontally after we have focused on early game Wonders. It also grants a free 4-7 charge Builder in newly founded cities, which makes it more valuable when playing as China. If you are going for a Science Victory, getting Royal Society works exceptionally well with China's Builders. As each Builder charge is worth 2% of a Space Race Project, an 8 charge Chinese Builder can speed up the process by 16% each turn. All other Government Plaza Buildings are situational. Governors I recommend Liang and Victor as the two governors that have direct synergy with China's kit. Dedications I highly recommend the Golden Age version of Monumentality because it grants extra +2 Movement for our already exceptional Builders and makes them cheaper to purchase via and . All other Dedications are situational. Playing As China In Multiplayer Since expanding quickly and playing aggressively is the general strategy in Multiplayer games, here are my three suggestions when playing as China. # For Wonders, prioritise the Pyramids and the Terracotta Army (the latter only if you have a sizeable army amassed already). # All other Production should be channelled towards general empire expansion and infrastructure improvement. As human players are generally more aggressive and less predictable than the AI, focusing too much on Wonders in the early game will more than likely lead you to getting rushed by enemy forces and defeated. # Because of the above, no matter how friendly other players are to you, make sure you prepare well in advance Great Wall tile improvements and fortify with defending troops near your empire's borders. Victory Types This section is intended to showcase the versatility of China's kit for all Victory types. Note that these strategies are not set in stone, and are general guidelines that are meant to be adapted to the circumstances of the game. How To Play Against China When facing against China (both in single and multiplayer), simply invade her with as much military might as you can muster in the early game while she is preoccupied with building Wonders. If she cannot snowball off the early game, she will be crippled for the rest of the game.Category:Guides (Civ6)